Day 42: Sent into Exile

Speaker 1 I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast. We're through prayer and meditation.

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This is day 42.

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Speaker 1 The fourth sorrowful mystery is the carrying of the cross.

Speaker 1 Matthew chapter 27,

Speaker 1 verse 32.

Speaker 1 as they were marching out

Speaker 1 they came upon a man of Cyrene Simon by name

Speaker 1 this man they compelled to carry his cross

Speaker 1 let's begin by just looking at the literal sense literally what's happened here they're marching him out

Speaker 1 It was customary for crucifixion to take place outside of the city walls. Again, the ones who are behind this ultimately are the Romans.

Speaker 1 This is a Roman expression of capital punishment, but it will have meaning for the Jewish community and Judaism as well. So we'll take a look at that.

Speaker 1 But they're taking them out, and it was often done in a major crossroads. And the reason for this is the maximizing of public shame of the person.

Speaker 1 And those condemned to die usually carried the cross beam. Okay, so we have the scripture telling us that they came upon a man of Cyrene, Simon by name, and they compelled him to carry the cross.

Speaker 1 Cyrene is a North African city on the coast of what today is Libya, but it had a Jewish population, and the name Simon is traditionally a Jewish name.

Speaker 1 So most scholars would posit that Simon is a Jewish man visiting Jerusalem for the Passover.

Speaker 1 What can be intuited and inferred from Simon being asked to carry the cross was that the severity of the beating of Jesus and his scourging was so profound that he was too weak to carry the cross all the way to Calvary on his own.

Speaker 1 An important linguistic note here, and I'm taking this from Mericakis' commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, is this word compelled. He's compelled.
It's a Greek technical term.

Speaker 1 So the Greek word, I think, is angereo, reuo. I'm not exactly confident in the pronunciation, but it's a technical term, which means to requisition or to press into service.

Speaker 1 And it refers to the right of Roman garrisons to compel Jews to perform any military or civil service needed. And again, I'm taking that from Maricakis.

Speaker 1 And so Simon is not just invited, he's forced, he's compelled to help carry the cross.

Speaker 1 And here I'd like just to pause and offer an invitation for your ongoing prayer and reflection on the experience of Simon, who's forced to do this.

Speaker 1 And certainly originally is begrudgingly, like, does not want to be carrying the cross being of this man condemned to die?

Speaker 1 But what is his experience

Speaker 1 of the Lord as he is brought into relationship, into intimacy with him? Like,

Speaker 1 what does their exchange look like?

Speaker 1 What happens in the heart of Simon here?

Speaker 1 Okay, at this time, we're going to go ahead and leave Simon, but I'll entrust to you this ongoing prayer about the internal experience of Simon as he carries the cross and meets Jesus in this exchange.

Speaker 1 And we're going to transition to a look at a major overarching theological theme of the evangelist.

Speaker 1 There's this profound spiritual reality. and truth at play here.

Speaker 1 I'm going to be basing this off of, again, Maricakis, page 466 of his commentary, A Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word, he writes this: that Jewish laws are largely about the separation of clean from unclean at both the material and spiritual levels.

Speaker 1 And the condemned prisoner, Jesus of Nazareth, ranks

Speaker 1 as unclean.

Speaker 1 Jesus, the clean one,

Speaker 1 is being condemned and cast out as one who is unclean.

Speaker 1 Hebrews chapter 13, verse 12 reads: So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Speaker 1 Maricakis comments, in this sense, Jesus is the true and efficacious scapegoat.

Speaker 1 We see here as the high priest places upon the scapegoat his hands, and in doing so, the iniquity of the people and leads him out into the wilderness.

Speaker 1 Jesus, the true and efficacious scapegoat, now is led outside of the city.

Speaker 1 And he bears upon his head, along with the crown of thorns the sins of Israel and all mankind.

Speaker 1 Fulfilling what Saint Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, again, for our sake, God made him to be sin who knew no sin.

Speaker 1 Continuing his commentary on Jesus, as the true and efficacious scapegoat Maricakis writes,

Speaker 1 If Jesus has become one with every sin of mankind, including blasphemy, It is not because he has committed such sin, but only because his Father has loaded on his person the iniquities of all peoples, of all times and places.

Speaker 1 Spiritually, this gives the context of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane as he goes into the Holy of Holies.

Speaker 1 He goes as the priest. He also goes as the lamb to be slain, as the scapegoat to take upon himself the iniquity of all peoples.

Speaker 1 And instead of the high priest placing his hands, on the head of the goat as he would do in the Day of Atonement, in the Holy of Holies, in Jerusalem, in the temple. It's the Father.

Speaker 1 As Jesus says, thy will be done. It's the Father who places his hands on the head of Jesus

Speaker 1 and bestows on him the iniquity of all people, of all times and places.

Speaker 1 And then Jesus is led to the wilderness. He is exiled.
And we see here Jesus' earthly life in many ways ending in the same way it began.

Speaker 1 As John wrote in his gospel, he came to his own home, and his own people received him not.

Speaker 1 There was no place for him in the end. The Son of God, the creator, the light of the world, he has come into the world, the clean one to heal us, to save us, to make us new, to make us clean.

Speaker 1 And we have rejected him.

Speaker 1 We have sent him into exile.

Speaker 1 He came to his own home,

Speaker 1 and his people received him not.

Speaker 1 My brothers and sisters, as we pray with the fourth sorrowful mystery today,

Speaker 1 let us with great contrition and compunction

Speaker 1 look at

Speaker 1 our Creator, our Lord, our Savior,

Speaker 1 sent into exile,

Speaker 1 kicked out from all of Jerusalem and all of humanity,

Speaker 1 and sent to the cross

Speaker 1 as the true

Speaker 1 and efficacious scapegoat, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Let us pray.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speaker 1 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Speaker 1 Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Speaker 1 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Speaker 1 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
All right, my friends, thank you for joining me and praying with me again today.

Speaker 1 I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right, Poco, Poco.

Speaker 1 God bless y'all.